New Delhi: Charting an apparent middle path, the Cauvery River Authority (CRA) on September 8 directed Karnataka to release 9,000 cusecs of water equivalent to 0.8 thousand million cubic feet (tmcft) to Tamil Nadu.

Water Resources Minister Arjun Charan Sethi announced this after a 90-minute meeting of the authority chaired by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee.

The Chief Ministers of Karnataka, Kerala and Pondicherry, S M Krishna, A K Antony and N Rangaswamy, and Tamil Nadu Finance Minister Ponnaiyan attended the meeting.

Though both Karnataka and Tamil Nadu put their points of view, at the end there was "near consensus", Sethi said.

Chairing an emergency meeting of the Cauvery River Authority, Vajpayee said, "The situation being very critical this year, we have to immediately come out with a workable solution for the current season so that farmers in both the states are able to cultivate their fields in the present drought situation."

Recalling September 7 Cauvery Monitoring Committee meeting, Vajpayee said while the basin states agreed on certain issues, no final conclusion could be arrived there.

He said in the last CRA meeting held on August 27 that all the four riparian states, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Pondicherry, agreed that Cauvery basin was among the most severely affected river basins.

"We also agreed that there is no solution other than sharing the deficit and the distress in an equitable manner in a spirit of compassion, mutual understanding and national solidarity," he said.

Vajpayee said at the meeting that Karnataka should ensure release of water from its reservoirs an inflow of 9,000 cusecs per day at Mettur in Tamil Nadu accounted on a weekly-average basis for September and October this year. Tamil Nadu in turn will ensure proportionate release to Pondicherry.

The Supreme Court last week had directed release of 1.25 tmc of water daily to Tamil Nadu till the authority met and finalised a distress-sharing formula.

PTI